History Trivia / BabylonFive

** Creator/MichaelOHare (Sinclair) apparently had Bechterew's disease, along with visible signs if you recognize those. His vertebrae had already begun to fuse by the time he was on [=B5=]; that's why he was on loads of painkillers and sleeping pills. He also suffered from asthma. He had to give up tons of roles because of his poor health. There were other rumors swirling around about drugs or network pressure to hire a more marketable lead, and Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi) spoke out on the guy in the past. If you ignored Doyle's usual reactionary sentiment, it was clear that O'Hare was suffering from something. His mental health decline forced him to resign as the show's lead, which meant that he had to be replaced. (There was never supposed to be a Sheridan at all.) "War Without End" was filmed when O'Hare got into a good enough state to come back for filming. He was on very strong meds, and the side effects showed. His physical and mental state declined further later. By 1998, the year when [=B5=] was originally planned to end, he was in a very poor state; the treatments were never entirely successful. There are convention videos from after he left. He had visible tardive dyskinesia by '96; by '98, he must have been on different meds, likely to get rid of the TD, because he gained plenty of weight. By '99, he looked about 70 years old, and was not even 50.

** Creator/MichaelOHare (Sinclair) O'Hare apparently had Bechterew's disease, along with visible signs if you recognize those. His vertebrae had already begun to fuse by the time he was on [=B5=]; that's why he was on loads of painkillers and sleeping pills. He also suffered from asthma. He had to give up tons of roles because of his poor health. There were rumors swirling around about drugs or network pressure to hire a more marketable lead, and Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi) spoke out on the guy in the past. If you ignored Doyle's usual reactionary sentiment, it was clear that O'Hare was suffering from something. His mental health decline forced him to resign as the show's lead, which meant that he had to be replaced. (There was never supposed to be a Sheridan at all.) "War Without End" was filmed when O'Hare got into a good enough state to come back for filming. He was on very strong meds, and the side effects showed. His physical and mental state declined further later. By 1998, the year when [=B5=] was originally planned to end, he was in a very poor state; the treatments were never entirely successful. There are convention videos from after he left. He had visible tardive dyskinesia by '96; by '98, he must have been on different meds, likely to get rid of the TD, because he gained plenty of weight. By '99, he looked about 70 years old, and was not even 50.

** Creator/MichaelOHare (Sinclair) had a schizophrenic breakdown, but this was not known by the public or his castmates until JMS revealed it following O'Hare's death.

** O'Hare apparently had Bechterew's disease, along with visible signs if you recognize those. His vertebrae had already begun to fuse by the time he was on [=B5=]; that's why he was on loads of painkillers and sleeping pills. He also suffered from asthma. He had to give up tons of roles because of his poor health. It was revealed after O'Hare's passing that he had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia for the entirety of Season One, in no small part due to the stress of helming a new TV show. According to JMS, O'Hare held the show up with his bare hands to ensure that the rest of the crew would have a job to go to. But he was in no shape to do it again in Season Two, so he was conspicuously [[PutOnaBus written out]] off-screen. "War Without End" was filmed when O'Hare got into a good enough state on his psych meds to come back for filming. He was on very strong meds, and the side effects showed. His physical and mental state declined further later. By 1998, the year when [=B5=] was originally planned to end, he was in a very poor state; the treatments were never entirely successful. There are convention videos from after he left. He had visible tardive dyskinesia by '96; by '98, he must have been on different meds, likely to get rid of the TD, because he gained plenty of weight. By '99, he looked about 70 years old, and was not even 50.

** It was revealed after O'Hare's passing that he had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia for the entirety of Season One, in no small part due to the stress of helming a new TV show. (He had a fairly-promising theater career before that.) According to JMS, O'Hare held the show up with his bare hands to ensure that the rest of the crew would have a job to go to. But he was in no shape to do it again in Season Two, so he was conspiculously [[PutOnaBus written out]] off-screen.

** Conaway wasn't the only one. Jerry Doyle was never an actor: He went to school for aerospace engineering, worked as a corporate jet pilot, and then changed careers to become a stockbroker. He just randomly decided to try a shot at acting and got cast in [=B5=]. (Of course he was in some small things prior, most memorably as a Creator/BruceWillis [[SimilarSquad "Wannabe"]] in an episode of ''{{Series/Moonlighting}}''.) Garibaldi was Jerry Doyle, so he's not actually acting. He was just playing himself.

** The [=DVDs=] looked like hammered sh*t. The show was shot in widescreen, but framed for both widescreen and fullscreen. They could have rendered effects for widescreen and even HD back in the day, but WB were cheap and didn't provide a couple widescreen HD monitors for the effects team. Something like tens of thousands for additional hardware. The rest would have been left to computers running another render overnight from the animation files. Basically at the cost of electricity when it comes to indivudal episodes. The 4:3 aspect ratio looks so much better in the remaster: nothing important missing from the sides in live-action, and CGI has nothing cropped from the top or bottom.

* RealLifeRelative: Anna Sheridan (played by Beth Toussaint) first appeared in a video to her sister-in-law, which was recorded prior to her disappearance. Toussaint wasn't available for the episode where Anna [[spoiler:returns as a Shadow agent]]; Melissa Gilbert (Bruce Boxleitner's real-life spouse at the time) was cast in her place.

* BigNameFan:
** The widow of Creator/GeneRoddenberry, Creator/MajelBarrett, guest-starred in the third season as Lady Morella, the third wife of the late Centauri Emperor, as a means to quell the dispute between the shows. She'd previously been one of the biggest Trekkies to promote the show, urging fans at conventions to check it out.
--->'''Majel''': ''[sliding doors fail to open on cue]'' Yeah, I'm used to it.
** Back when nearly all of the World Wide Web could be linked to one page, it seemed that most web sites had some sort of sci-fi series tribute somewhere. TNG was a popular choice for enshrinement. B5 has one up on them, though: the NCSA Mosaic browser (a distant ancestor of Internet Explorer and Firefox) had a semi-secret page where the developers expressed their love for B5 and provided a few links to fansites in case you wanted to learn more.

** Stephen Furst (Vir Kotto) died from diabetes complications in 2017 aged 63.
** Creator/MiraFurlan (Delenn) died from West Nile virus disease in 2021 age 65.

* FanworkBan: There was a fanwork ban while the show was being broadcast, due to a notorious incident in which JMS was forced by Warner Bros. lawyers to prove that he had come up with the "A"-plot of the episode "Passing Through Gethsemane" after a fan had idly suggested on Usenet that such a thing[[note]]A "death of personality" punishment turning out not to be permanent[[/note]] would be a cool idea.

** Creator/MiraFurlan (Delenn) died from an unspecified illness in 2021 age 65.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: A {{sleeper hit}} in America, the show met with bigger audience across the pond. The conventions back home were modest in attendance, which left the actors actors ill-prepared for the Elvis-like reception they get in the UK.

* RetroactiveRecognition:
** Creator/BryanCranston appears in "The Long Night" as a dedicated Ranger captain.
** Mira Furlan (Delenn) went on to play a [[WildHair wild-haired]] CrazySurvivalist on ''Series/{{Lost}}''.
** Ken Jenkins (Trevor Hall, captain of the Heracles) later played Dr. Kelso on ''Series/{{Scrubs}}''.
** Matthew Stoner [[Series/{{Angel}} only got creepier as he got older]]. Plus he ''really'' hates spiky-haired vampires.

** When asked about sequels, Straczynski was known to say that he didn't see how it would be possible "so long as Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) and Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin) remain dead." That said, he did ''The Lost Tales'' after their passing, and now with his Hollywood success, there seem to be very early feelers out about a real [[TheMovie movie]]. He also noted that Ta'Lon, played by the still living Marshall Teague, is similar enough to G'Kar that he could be used for further stories. However, with Jerry Doyle's death in 2016, followed by Stephen Furst in 2017, this is looking less likely.

** Creator/AndreasKatsulas (G'Kar) died of lung cancer in 2006 aged 59.

* FakeNationality: The Irish-American Jerry Doyle played the Italian-American Michael Garibaldi. He once quipped that he was "a Mick from Brooklyn playing a Wop from Mars." (He was canonically born in NYC but worked the Mars beat for many years.) ''Fun:'' Jerry Doyle was never an actor. He went to school for aerospace engineering, worked as a corporate jet pilot, and then changed careers to become a stockbroker. He just randomly decided to try a shot at acting and got cast in [=B5=]. (Of course he was in some small things prior, most hilariously as a Bruce Willis [[SimilarSquad "Wannabe"]] in an episode of ''{{Series/Moonlighting}}''.) Garibaldi was Jerry Doyle, so he's not actually acting. He was just playing himself.

** Zack's complaints about his ill-fitting uniform were inspired by Jeff Conaway, who was unaware that JMS overheard him griping about the costumes. He was stunned to see his verbatim comments in the script. Conaway wasn't the only one:

** This is the reason why WB hasn't done anything with B5. Warner Bros. TV themselves weren't responsible for B5: WBTV's first-run syndication division was, and they were denied the credit (and the profits); [[ https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2407022/why-babylon-5-will-probably-never-return-to-tvthe execs are apparently still bitter about it]].

** WB weren't responsible for B5: WBTV's first-run syndication division was, and they were denied the credit (and the profits).

* BlackSheepHit: Notably, around the end of Season 2, the network notes ceased. The studio just stopped sending suggestions and demands, apparently content with JMS doing his thing or just ignoring him completely. This may have had something to do with {{Creator/PTEN}}'s decay from an "aspiring fifth network" to ''nickname for the WB syndication package''.

** Data crystals. Small clear crystals about the size of a USB flashdrive, are the data storage medium of choice in the setting. One of the technical manuals states that they have a storage capacity of 50 gigabytes, which certainly seemed like a lot in the mid 90's, especially for something so small. 20 years later, and there are USB drives commercially available in excess of 250 Gb.

* FollowUpFailure: ''Crusade'' had its share of problems, but inciting laughter wasn't one of them. Fans still poke fun at ''Legend of the Rangers'' for the weapons officer and her CG 'gun turret.' ''Dance Dance Revolution'' is [[UnusualUserInterface the best interface]]. (The original concept was a weapons chair which would have been more like ''Film/TheLastStarfighter''.) The Hand is supposed to be older and worse than the Shadows and yet they're defeated by [[WhatAPieceOfJunk an obsolete flying brick]] with a mediocre crew. Twice. What happened to casting character actors? Never mind, this fella's got a leading man's chin.

** The widow of Creator/GeneRoddenberry, Creator/MajelBarrett, guest-starred in the third season as Lady Morella, the third wife of the late Centauri Emperor, as a means to quell the fan-anger between the shows. She'd previously been one of the biggest Trekkies to promote the show, urging fans at conventions to check it out.

** Richard Biggs (Dr. Stephen Franklin) died of a ruptured aorta in 2004 at a mere 44 years old.
** Tim Choate (Zathras) died in a motorcycle accident later in 2004 aged 49.
** Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) died of lung cancer in 2006 aged 59.
** Jeff Conaway (Zack Allan) died from drug-abuse-related illnesses in 2011 aged 60.

** JMS hired a set designer with a theatre background to make the sets minimalist, inexpensive and reusable. It mostly worked, save for a few obvious budget-crunch oddities like reusing the Centauri throne room set for scenes on the Narn home world. Later TV movies didn’t fare as well.

* ActorAllusion: Creator/RobertEnglund marveling at his own hand in "Grey 17 is Missing" is an obvious ''Nightmare on Elm Street'' gag.

* CastTheRunnerUp: Caitlin Brown (Na'toth) unsuccessfully auditioned for the part of Delenn in the pilot and Ivanova in the series.

** Claudia Christian (Ivanova) broke her ankle during "The Geometry of Shadows" but, thanks to a hasty rewrite (Susan getting trampled by the Drazi), was able to work through it. Though she might have wished she hadn't, since filming the 'injury' scene aggravated her real-life injury, generating such a blood-curdling scream that it was rumored she actually broke her ankle on-camera.

** The part of Lyta in the pilot movie was written specifically for Patricia Tallman by JMS, who is a huge geek for zombie films and loved her performance in the ''[[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1990 Night of the Living Dead]]'' remake. Tallman had unsuccessfully auditioned for other roles, including a ''Trek'' movie, and worked as a stuntwoman on numerous TNG episodes, and guest-starred in at least two of them. (In her book she humorously refers to them as "vagina forehead" and "Creator/LizaMinnelli with jaundice.") She was chomping at the bit for something bigger, so when JMS offered Tallman the role, she was ecstatic and promoted the show around-the-clock. PTEN nixed the character and replaced her with Talia before the series went to air. In hindsight, it's clear that few people involved in the production (including Adam Nimoy) trusted Tallman, a stuntperson, to convincingly act. Not one to take a network note in stride, JMS called Lyta back into action the minute Talia was written out.

** American actress Claudia Christian played the born-and-raised Russian Susan Ivanova. She barely has any accent beyond an occasional stilted speech pattern in early episodes. The In-Universe explanation is that she spent most of her life studying abroad [[spoiler: so her mother could prevent the authorities from figuring that Susan was a latent telepath.]]

** Claudia Christian and JMS had a falling-out after she opted not to return for Season 5. Claudia claimed he hit on her and she turned down his advances; Joe alleged that she was leveraging the future of the series for higher pay, which he alludes to in a LowerDeckEpisode when one character [[PutOnABusToHell speculates out-loud that Ivanova quit over a salary dispute.]] It got ugly and played out in real-time on the internet, with both parties talking past other, rallying fanboys to their side, and pitting them against one another. Transcripts of the feud are available online.

** Claudia Christian [[http://40.media.tumblr.com/e06eab5bc96626d2db817292d85be254/tumblr_nc9buxZjCd1qc2k4vo1_500.jpg broke her ankle]] between shoots and phoned the studio to inform them. She was certain that her character was going to be written out. Instead, JMS simply wrote her accident into the script and production continued.

* FakeNationality: The Irish-American Jerry Doyle played the Italian-American Michael Garibaldi. He once quipped that he was "a Mick from Brooklyn playing a Wop from Mars." (He was canonically born in NYC but worked the Mars beat for many years.) ''Fun:'' Jerry Doyle was never an actor. He went to school for aerospace engineering. He just randomly decided to try a shot at acting and got cast in [=B5=]. (Of course he was in some small things prior, most hilariously as a Bruce Willis [[SimilarSquad "Wannabe"]] in an episode of ''{{Series/Moonlighting}}''.) Garibaldi was Jerry Doyle, so he's not actually acting. He was just playing himself.

* PostScriptSeason: The show was originally plotted to have a five-season arc. When PTEN finally disintegrated and the show was not renewed for a fifth season, the fourth season was reworked to finish the arc. The show was subsequently granted a fifth season by TNT, but with almost all of its major plot threads resolved. The fifth season which resulted was noticeably boring and was composed partly of scripts that had been cut from earlier seasons for various reasons.